Fox's Revenge
by Yoshimaster
Summary: When Fox sees his best buddy go down in combat, he seeks those responsible... alone.


"I can't believe Pepper is making us do a rescue operation," Falco Lombardi exclaimed, cruising his Arwing ahead of the others. "That just ain't us!"  
  
Earlier that day, General Pepper had contacted The Great Fox with urgent news.  
  
"Star Fox team, we've received a distress signal from an asteroid colony just outside the Lylat system," said Pepper, his voice and image distorted due to the great distance between The Great Fox and Corneria. "It was difficult to make anything out of it, but it was apparently made in haste. You'd better go check it out."  
  
"Boy, does he have a knack for understatement," Fox McCloud murmured to Slippy. "Just the edge of Lylat is a good eight hours from here by hyperdrive. And this is outside…"  
  
"…And since you are the closest convoy to the colony," Pepper continued, "I figured we would not waste the time and money necessary to gather a fresh convoy to seek it out. Besides, you have all the necessary equipment. Good luck."  
  
And with that, the screen flickered off, and the four crewmembers were alone in their ship.  
  
"Is he nuts?" Falco cried in disbelief. "We're not a search-and-rescue team, especially not for some hermit colony. Let the outsiders fend for themselves."  
  
"You heard Pepper," said Peppy, his whiskers twitching. "Besides, he gave his 'good luck,' so there's no use arguing."  
  
Fox put in, "Look, let's just get out there and see what the fuss is all about, ok? I doubt we'll even find anything. It was probably an automatic signal set off by radioactive energy, or maybe a panicked rookie pilot reacting to something he wasn't prepared to handle…" Falco scoffed, turned his head. Fox shot him a scowl. "Anyway, we haven't got another mission to tackle, have we?"  
  
No one spoke. Everyone looked at Slippy, instinctively expecting him to offer his view. But he just sat there, twiddling his thumbs.  
  
"All right then, let's fire up the Arwings," Fox said, standing up.  
  
"Wait a minute, Fox!" Falco cried. "Why are we going by Arwing?"  
  
"Because ROB has The Great Fox on an automated orbit and to change it would be to throw off the Arwings' orientation." Fox said. Everyone else groaned.  
  
"Look's like it's more strap chewing for me," Peppy sighed.  
  
After a smooth take-off, the four pilots were three hours into their nine-hour trip when Falco finally burst and let out his complaint.   
  
"Don't go too far away, you might go off course," Slippy said, noticing Falco's swerve.  
  
"Yeah, get back here, Lombardi," Fox said.  
  
"You're the boss," Falco conceded dryly, bringing his Arwing in front of Slippy's.  
  
"Hey!"  
  
Seven hours into their trip, Fox was near exhaustion. He was counting star streaks, Falco was muttering angry comments under his breath, Slippy was asleep, and Peppy was busy chewing his helmet strap to a pulp, when the alarm came.  
  
"Whoa, what the hell?.."  
  
"I didn't touch anything!!"  
  
"I'm awake! I'm awake!"  
  
"Mmf?"  
  
Fox's Arwing came to a grinding halt, driving his head into the control panel. He recovered, thanking himself for keeping his helmet on during the trip.  
  
"Everyone ok?" Fox asked. "All ships check in!"  
  
Falco: "I'm good, Fox."  
  
Peppy: "A little shaken, but ok!"  
  
Slippy: "I-I-I'll be ok."  
  
Fox checked his instruments. What had caused them to come out of hyperspace so abruptly?  
  
Slippy: "Hey, what's that up ahead?"  
  
Fox raised his head. In the distance, about two miles ahead, was a blue, flashing light.  
  
That was what had caused them to stop. The Arwings had highly tuned sensors that indicated whether objects ahead are a threat to blazing Arwings. The sensors detected this light (or whatever was behind it), and stopped two miles short. In hyperspace, this is like stopping on a dime.  
  
Peppy: "This isn't right. Isn't the colony supposed to be two hours from here?"  
  
Falco: "Looks like it fell out of orbit."  
  
Fox: "Asteroids don't just 'fall out of orbit.' At least not without the colonists knowing first."  
  
Fox hit his accelerators, propelling himself ahead of the others. But they promptly caught up.  
  
Falco: "What's with the hurry, Fox?"  
  
Fox: "Something's up. I want to know what it is."  
  
Eventually, the pilots noticed growing patches of stars going out, caused by the asteroid's bulk. But the single blue light was the only one that persisted.  
  
Falco: "Well, here's a little anecdote. If you're livin' on an asteroid in the middle of nowhere, what's the number one thing you do? Turn on lots of lights. This is an abandoned hive, Fox."  
  
Falco was right. If they were to land on the surface, they would find nothing except maybe a deadly, swiftly killing disease.  
  
Fox sighed.  
  
Fox: Ok, let's make contact. At least we may hear that pointless distress signal one last…"  
  
Slippy: "What's that!"  
  
A streak of fire roared past Fox's starboard wing, leaving beams of brilliant lasers in its wake. Then, from behind the asteroid, came an attack carrier, clouded by dozens of ships.  
  
Slippy: "We're under attack!"  
  
Falco: "It was a trap!"  
  
Fox: "Shit! Pull out! All ships pull out!!"  
  
Fox wrenched on the retros, and in perfect unison, the four ships reversed their paths and tore away from the ambush. But their tracks were stopped short. Another attack carrier, again surrounded by ships, was dead on their heels.  
  
Fox: "No chance! Get into attack position! Fan out!!"  
  
The Arwings fell out of formation and began chasing the ships that were attacking.  
  
Fox locked onto a target, a particular ship that was sweeping through the matrices of flying ships. Focusing his natural hunter skills, he opened fire. The ship exploded in a satisfying flurry of flaming metal and hot glass.  
  
Falco: "The attack carrier will be mine!!"  
  
Fox saw Falco diving straight into the cloud of ships, heading straight for the carrier. Of course, it wasn't long before…  
  
Falco: "Damn! Bogey on my sixth!!"  
  
Fox: "I got your back, Lombardi!"  
  
Fox was heading for a collision course with the humongous asteroid, a direction 90 degrees away from Falco's position. He pulled on the throttle and made a U-turn taking the space of a football field to do so. He looked out his view screen. There was Falco, with an enemy hot on his heels. Surprisingly, he seemed to be taking blind shots at the carrier even though he was being hit. Fox eased on the controls, for he almost had a good shot…  
  
Peppy: Look out, Fox!!!"  
  
Fox looked up, and his eyes met an enemy ship, blazing right at him! He audibly screamed, squeezed his eyes shut, and instinctively yet blindly wrenched his controls to port.  
  
  
  
His ship lurched with incredible force, sending his face into the view screen. His snout slapped the glass; pain screamed through his nose. A blinding flash lit the cockpit as sparks flew from his controls and the G's climbed-he had been hit! He lifted his face, leaving a streak of blood on the view screen. His ears throbbed from his ship's wailing siren. Dazed, he fumbled for the controls, desperately trying to regain control of his reeling spacecraft. But when the ship swerved, he realized that his ship wasn't in a death spiral; it was his own head that temporarily lost sense of direction.  
  
Falco: "Dammit, Fox…"  
  
His comm link spurted unrecognizable forms of static, and then was silent.  
  
Fox looked out his view screen. Floating rubble and dispersing smoke surrounded him, plus the occasional flaming ship… Falco's Arwing was nowhere to be seen. The attack carrier was still there, but seemed to have been damaged and was preparing to leave. Then it dawned on him. He hadn't been hit at all. In his panic, he had accidentally launched a Nova Bomb!!  
  
Peppy: "Hey Fox! That little stunt of yours seemed to have saved us!"  
  
Slippy: "Yeah, the attack carriers are leaving!"  
  
Fox struggled not to bite his tongue. His ship had barely been damaged at all, but he was in a state of shock. And he still couldn't see any signs of Falco. Clearing his throat, Fox opened his intercom.  
  
Fox: "All ships check in."  
  
Peppy: "Here and accounted for!"  
  
Slippy: "I'm still alive!"  
  
Fox hesitated, listening for the message that would never come.  
  
Fox: "Falco, you there?"  
  
…Nothing.  
  
Slippy: "Hey, what happened to Falco?"  
  
Fox: "Ok, team, split up and find him. Maybe he got knocked away."  
  
Half an hour later, the Arwing pilots came up fruitless. Finally, they had to accept the inevitable.  
  
Fox: "Set your courses for The Great Fox. We're outta here."  
  
Slippy: "But what about Falco?"  
  
Peppy: "Yeah, you can't just leave our friend!"  
  
Fox: "Falco's gone. Let's go."  
  
His voice sounded harsh even in his own ears. Still, his team followed his orders.  
  
Seven hours later, they arrived back at The Great Fox.  
  
"Get Pepper on the link, Slippy," Fox demanded. "I've got a bone to pick with him."  
  
The screen flickered, and Pepper's broad face appeared.  
  
"Hello, Fox," he said brightly. "Did you find…"  
  
"Listen, Pep!" Fox growled, in a voice that Peppy and Slippy knew could earn him a court marshals. "Why did you send us on this trip if you didn't know a damn thing about it?!"  
  
Pepper was stunned. "Well, Fox… I don't know what you…"  
  
"At the asteroid. We were ambushed by two, that's two, attack carriers and a swarm of bees. Now, if this mission was so important, why did you send us with so little knowledge? Huh??"  
  
"Fox, we can't always draw you a map and a list of mission objectives. I mean, you knew about the message we got. Not a lot you can draw from there. And sometimes, we need to find out…"  
  
"Falco is dead, Pepper," Fox roared. "He's dead, and it's all because of your 'need to find out.'"  
  
Pepper was somewhat taken aback by this. Then, "Well, Fox, I'm sorry for your loss, but you know of the potential risk of every mission…"  
  
"To hell with potential risk. I'm sick of this whole thing. From this day forth, I am no longer part of the Star Fox team!" With that, Fox tore off his insignia and stormed out.  
  
"Wait, Fox!" Slippy said. "Where are you going?"  
  
"Keep him out of the Arwings," Pepper grumbled. "If he's off the Star Fox team, then he has no right to use my Arwings!"  
  
Moments later, however, a lone Arwing stormed out of The Great Fox, and disappeared into the depths of space.  
  
Fox cradled a glass of beer within his hands, his second. Fox was never much of a drinker, and by now he was beginning to feel woozy.  
  
The smoky atmosphere of the space station bar "Calzum," a common place for rogue pilots to take breaks, was clouding out his thoughts. Behind him, in the magnetically sealed landing platform, stood his Arwing, hidden amongst the various kinds of ships parked there. He held his blaster close to his side, in case anyone was to attempt a theft.  
  
Questions filled his mind. What was the asteroid doing in empty space? What happened to it? Who controlled those attack carriers? Why did they attack? What did they want with the Star Fox team?  
  
It's obvious I won't find the answers here, Fox thought to himself. He got up to leave, when he heard a peculiar voice laughing in the background. Fox sat down again, and listened in.  
  
"So," the throaty voice said, still chuckling. "My crew had just stolen these great attack carriers, see? Awesome machines, pack quite a punch. And they came with a whole squadron of fighters!" At this point, Fox was listening intently.  
  
"Oh, man!" a deep voice said, laughing.  
  
"What did you do with them?" said another.  
  
"Well," the first continued, "We used the radar system to track down this colony. And once it was in range… heh heh… we looted it! And it was mining silver, no less!"  
  
The voice's friends were laughing loudly now.  
  
"But, that's not the best part!" said the voice, who paused to take a sip from his beer. "A couple of nosy ships came along."  
  
"Heh, heh."  
  
"Did you kick their ass?"  
  
"Yeah…" the voice hesitated.  
  
"'Yeah' what?"  
  
"Something hit us, so we had to leave for repairs. But…"  
  
At this point, a crowd of noisy pilots entered the bar and sat right next to Fox, and he heard no more.  
  
But he needn't hear any more. He now knew enough. The asteroid was looted, pirates controlled the carriers, and they attacked the Star Fox team out of brute strength.  
  
The pirates got up, still laughing. Casually, Fox looked at them out of the corner of his eye. He couldn't see much through the crowd, but they looked like foxes. One of them was a rhinoceros, most likely the one with the deep voice. He heard the door pushed open, then slam shut.  
  
Fox got up and tossed a handful of coins at the bartender. "Keep the change," he said, and was out the door.  
  
It was fairly easy to follow the notorious pilots, since Fox heard the rhinoceros mention "Titania" on his way out, a planet he was familiar with.  
  
Fox fired up the Arwing, and while going through the take-off procedures, he kept one eye on the group of pirates. They stood talking for several minutes in the vast landing platform. Then they boarded a small, beaten-up cargo ship and took off. Fox gunned the throttle and found himself a good fifty yards behind them.  
  
Not planning to take any chances, Fox activated the "Hyperspace tracing device" Slippy installed in his ship. "Just in case you ever need to follow an enemy," he had said.  
  
Not surprisingly, the ship was headed for Titania. Fox set his own course for the planet, and as soon as the cargo ship jumped into hyperspace, he followed suit.  
  
It was two hours later when they arrived at Titania. While Fox was catching up to the battered cargo ship, he wondered: What did they have to do at Titania?  
  
His question was soon answered. The ship landed at a landing platform on a space station orbiting the red planet. It seemed to be a repair center; it was huge, made up of four separate stations and twelve vast landing platforms. On one of these sat two attack carriers.  
  
"I gotcha now, you little bastards," Fox muttered, bringing the Arwing down to land.  
  
He chose a back platform, just in case the pirates noticed his Arwing and became suspicious. As he jumped out of his ship, he grabbed three things: his blaster, binoculars, and charge bombs.  
  
The space station itself had the dingy, smelly atmosphere of a repair center. Since he had landed on a back platform, rust covered pipes, valves, and bulky plates surrounded the corridor. In the distance, he heard the chugging of an engine of some sort.  
  
Fox climbed a metal ladder up one floor, then made his way toward the area where the pirates would be. He was near the door at the end when he heard voices, and flattened himself against one wall.  
  
"Are they ready yet?"  
  
"No, sir, but…"  
  
"Get them ready then. I got to show them to my buds."  
  
"Well, you can go inside them, but they're not in good enough condition to take…"  
  
"Whatever. C'mon, guys, I think they're this way."  
  
Fox heard footsteps. They were getting softer, so the pirates were going down another corridor. Cautious, he glanced out for one second then brought his head back in. After another second, he casually walked into the repair center.  
  
"Excuse me," he asked the mechanic. "Could you show me where to get to those two attack carriers?"  
  
The mechanic looked puzzled. "But… those machines belong to that gentleman who just left…"  
  
"I'm his friend. I was in the restroom. Which way did he go?"  
  
"That way, sir."  
  
The mechanic pointed at a large gate at the front of the room. Fox thanked him and ran at it.  
  
Fox stood in front of the giants.  
  
They don't look so big in space, he thought, observing the damage on the one he had hit. The hull itself seemed to have been repaired, but one of the claw halves was missing. Then he remembered seeing an oddly shaped, heavily mangled object inside the repair shop. That must have been it.  
  
His eyes fell to the underbellies. The hatch to the damaged one was shut, but the other was wide open. Taking a deep breath and squeezing his blaster for assurance, Fox entered the ship.  
  
Inside the attack carrier was just as frightening and intimidating as on the outside. The corridors were small… Fox had to bend his neck… and suffocating. And, he noted, there was machinery everywhere.  
  
He followed his intuition down a corridor to the right of a fork that split three ways. It bent twenty feet down. He crept along the way and jumped into the new corridor. This one was longer; it seemed to be over a hundred feet deep, and its walls were lined with doors. Taking his blaster out of its holster, Fox walked slowly down the hall, taking a look at each door…  
  
"Whoa, sorry, Je… hey! You ain't Jex!" roared a voice as Fox was knocked to the ground. Dazed, Fox looked up at his attacker; a snarling rhinoceros, pulling a rifle out of a shoulder holster.  
  
Yelling, Fox moved so he stood on his head, braced his arms against the floor, and shot his body at the rhino's head. The rhino yelped as he was knocked to the ground, his head still locked between Fox's boots. Then, with one quick twist of his hips, Fox snapped its neck.  
  
"What's all that noise? Brutus, did you hit your head on the ceiling again?"  
  
Fox heard the voice floating down the hall, accompanied by two pairs of approaching footsteps. As he jumped off of Brutus, he suddenly realized how well the acoustics were in that corridor. Damn!  
  
Fox jumped into the only open door, the one Brutus had just moved out of. But to his dismay, it was an extremely small utilities room and would not aid in hiding.  
  
"Oh jeez… what the hell happened to Brutus?!"  
  
"Either he fell, or we're not alone on this ship."  
  
They were in the corridor. Fox had to think fast. He stood back, observing the contents of the utilities room. There wasn't much there that was useful. Pliers… wire… a wrench… a glove covered in engine oil…  
  
A circuit breaker!!  
  
Fox could cut off the power to the rest of the ship! He grabbed the cover to the box, but it was locked. Frantic, he stood back, closed his eyes, and fired at the box.  
  
The lights were still on, but the box's lid had broken open, and now the two foxes in the hall were shouting.  
  
It's now or never, Fox thought, and he flipped off all the switches with a single thrust.  
  
Immediately, the lights in the corridor went out, and the loud machinery rumbling in the distance did also. Now, the pirates knew he was there.  
  
Faster than the pirates, though, Fox leapt into the hallway and took two shots in the general direction of the foxes. One missed, but the other felled one of the pirates. Fearing retaliation, Fox jumped back toward the utilities room but tripped over Brutus's body.  
  
Here it comes.  
  
A hand snatched Fox's collar and pulled him to his feet.  
  
"I could kill you right now, easily," Jex hissed in his ear. Fox felt the end of a blaster press hard against his temple. "But you fight well. In fact, I think you'll make a good addition to my crew."  
  
Jex pulled him roughly down the corridor. After taking Fox's blaster, of course.  
  
"If I'm so good at combat," Fox growled. "Then I could easily escape after joining your crew."  
  
"Ah, you would think so," Jex said, pulling Fox into a corridor labeled "Detention Cells." "But not after I brainwash you. And yes, it does work, I've done it before."  
  
In fact, Fox saw them pass a door labeled "Brainwash facility."  
  
"You see, the brain is just like a computer," Jex continued. "It stores and recalls information, but that information can just as easily be removed. Or manipulated. I can make you think you have worked with my crew all your life." Jex chuckled at the thought. "Hopefully, it won't kill you. But don't worry, you'll have time to think over your past life before I initiate the process. I have a waiting list, you see. Before you came along, I detained…"  
  
There was a loud report, followed by Jex's body falling on Fox. He smelled the strong aroma of ozone.  
  
"Brainwash me, will you?! Well, now your brain is all over the fucking wall!"  
  
Fox knew the voice. He pushed Jex's body away and looked at his savior. There, clad in his leather jacket and pilot suit, stood Falco, twirling a smoking blaster in his fingers.  
  
"Falco!" Fox cried, jumping up to greet him.  
  
"Well, Fox," said his friend. "I see they got you, too, huh?"  
  
"I… I thought I had… killed you."  
  
"Killed me? Hah! No one can kill me, Fox, but you almost did. No, the attack carrier got me caught in a tractor beam as soon as you released that bomb." Falco placed his gun in his holster and walked past Jex's body. Fox followed him, as if in a trance. "But I suppose you're wondering how I escaped my cell, eh? Well, it's strange, actually. I was sitting there, eyeing the blaster on the desk in the warden office across the hall, when the force field across the front of my cell deactivated!! It looked like there was a blackout. Can you believe these nuts? They installed a strictly force-field security system on their cells! Stick with the basics, I say."  
  
Fox said nothing, still revering in the happiness that his friend was still alive. Then, he stopped short. "You go ahead out of the ship, I need to do something." Then he ran down another corridor.  
  
Soon, he found himself in the core of the ship. He unzipped his backpack and pulled out the charge bombs. Setting each of them for ten minutes, he winged them out into the energy core, then turned and fled.  
  
"What's up, Fox?" Falco asked, as Fox ran out of the ship. "Nothing, I just hate small places."  
  
"So, we gonna take 'em or what?"  
  
"No. They're stolen property anyway, it wouldn't be right."  
  
"Then…"  
  
Suddenly, a ship roared overhead, turned a full circle, then landed on the platform. It was The Great Fox.  
  
"You got a whole rescue team for me, Fox?" Falco asked. Fox shook his head.  
  
"Hey, Fox!" Slippy yelled from the bottom hatch. "We've got your Arwing inside. Are you coming, or do you want to… Falco?!!!"  
  
"You got it," Falco shouted, saluting Slippy.  
  
"Why, I… come on in, guys! We'll talk!"  
  
At that moment, the attack carrier behind them exploded brilliantly, and the one parked next to it toppled over.  
  
"I figured the mechanic needed some business," Fox said to Falco.  
  
"Well Fox, I guess that since my property was returned and you saved Falco, I pardon everything you've done," Pepper said on the main screen inside The Great Fox. "And you're welcome back on the Star Fox team."  
  
"Sure thing, Pep," Fox said. With that, the screen flickered off.  
  
"So," Fox said, turning his attention to his teammates. "Explain to me how you guys tracked me down."  
  
"Easy," Slippy piped up. "Every Arwing has a tracking device automatically installed, so we used that to find you. I mean, after all, Pepper isn't gonna take chances with his Arwings, is he?  
  
"So anyway, we tracked you to 'Calzum,' and when we arrived, you weren't there. But since we can't track ships down that are currently in hyperspace, we had to wait until you arrived at Titania. You know the rest." He sat back and placed his hands behind his head, gloating in his own personal way.  
  
"Well, at least Star Fox team is all back together again," Said Fox brightly. "And Falco and I managed to rid this galaxy of three pirates."  
  
"Hey, I got the mastermind," Falco said. "You just got his accomplices."  
  
"But I was the one that turned off the power, which saved you," Fox pointed out.  
  
"Who, in turn, saved YOU, and killed the mastermind."  
  
They both paused, looking at the seats Peppy and Slippy were in. Both had left. Fox looked at Falco.  
  
"You wanna go get a beer?"  
  
"Sure." 


End file.
